This study investigates the impact of extended defects such as dislocations on the electronic properties of SrTiO₃ by using a 36.8° bicrystal as a model system. In order to evaluate the hypothesis that dislocations can serve as preferential reduction sites, which has been proposed in the literature on the basis of ab initio simulations, as well as on experiments employing local-conductivity atomic force microscopy (LC-AFM), detailed investigations of the bicrystal boundary are conducted. In addition to LC-AFM, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is applied herein as a complementary method for mapping the local electronic properties on the microscale. Both techniques confirm that the electronic structure and electronic transport in dislocation-rich regions significantly differ from those of undistorted SrTiO₃. Upon thermal reduction, a further confinement of conductivity to the bicrystal boundary region was found, indicating that extended defects can indeed be regarded as the origin of filament formation. This leads to the evolution of inhomogeneous properties of defective SrTiO₃ on the nano- and microscales.

中文翻译：

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SrTiO3中扩展缺陷的电子性质-以真实双晶边界为例

本研究调查了位错等扩展缺陷对SrTiO ₃电子性能的影响通过使用36.8°双晶作为模型系统。为了评估位错可以作为优先还原位的假说，该假说已在文献中根据从头算的模拟以及采用局部电导原子力显微镜（LC-AFM）的实验中提出，进行了详细研究进行双晶边界的确定。除LC-AFM外，荧光寿命成像显微镜（FLIM）在本文中还用作在微尺度上绘制局部电子特性的补充方法。两种技术都证实，位错富集区的电子结构和电子传输与未畸变的SrTiO ₃明显不同。。通过热还原，发现电导率进一步限制在双晶边界区域，这表明延伸的缺陷确实可以被视为长丝形成的起点。这导致有缺陷的SrTiO ₃在纳米和微米尺度上的不均匀特性的演变。